


Nobody Needs to Know

by taketheblanket



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Blowjobs, Bottom Gladio, Coach/Student Relationship, Fingering, Fluff, Gladio pines, I love you porn, M/M, Pre-Game Canon, Secret Relationship, until he doesn't have to anymore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-16 17:09:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12347004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taketheblanket/pseuds/taketheblanket
Summary: Noct finds out he's going to be married to Lunafreya and he feels like he's running out of time. When Noct discovers Gladio's unrequited feelings, he decides to take what's his. Gladio has to grapple with his own guilt and what it means to be Noct's Shield.





	Nobody Needs to Know

**Author's Note:**

  * For [whippy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whippy/gifts).



Their wooden swords meet between their bodies with a grunt from both men. They lean into their weapons and against one another, faces grit in concentration while they look back at their opponent. Gladio has both hands on the hilt, bearing his weight down over Noctis who brings his left hand to the blade in an attempt to hold him back. Though he’s putting up a good front, he is shaking from the effort; Noct has a couple of choices. He could attempt to phase through and dodge out, or he could switch to a handier weapon and parry. Whatever it is, he needs to decide quickly. Noct only has a few seconds of strength that can stop Gladio before he will fail. The coach stares into his student’s eyes, seeking a subtle flickering of his eyes in the direction of his escape, or maybe that rich indigo that bubbles from within whenever Noctis is about to reach into his armiger.

Gladio finds neither. Instead, Noct’s eyes become unfocused, and they slip from where they should be locked on Gladio’s above him to stare hazily at his chest, as if the fight isn’t even happening. Gladio uses the opportunity to slide to the left and brings his sword to Noct’s thighs hard enough to send him rolling across the mat. It’s the third time tonight Noct has lost focus and he has the skinned elbows to show for it.

“The hell is wrong with you?” Gladio asks.

“Sorry,” Noct grumbles from the floor, wiping a drop of blood from his arm before licking it off his thumb. “Can’t keep my head in the game.”

“No shit,” Gladio responds. “Did something happen today?”

Noct had to move practice an hour later than usual to attend a suddenly scheduled meeting with his father. Though audience with the King was rare, when it did happen, Noct was almost always in a bad mood afterwards. However, this seems different. Usually a spar is the perfect way to work through Noct’s agitation, but today he doesn’t seem pissed off. He does not move to get off the ground. He just sits and investigates his scrapes, his face empty of emotion and his eyes detached.

“Nah, just the same old royal circle jerk,” he says without looking up “You know how it can be in there.”

He does know. Gladio sighs, dropping his sword. He turns his hat brim forward and reaches down to help Noct stand.

“Well, come on,” he says. “I’ll take you home. You're no fun to fight like this.”

He drives with one hand on the wheel, the other scratching anxiously through his beard. He spares a glance at Noctis whenever the road allows it. The Prince stares out the window. He doesn’t use his phone, he doesn’t reach for the radio dial, he just watches the Crown City roll by as they cross town back to his apartment.

Gladio can tell something is wrong and these are always the hardest moments for him, when Noctis is upset and Gladio can’t find the words to say. It extends beyond his duty as Shield to protect him, and enters another territory— the untrustworthy feelings he tries not to acknowledge, the ones that make him want _more_ , to take more of Noctis, to give more of himself.

It’s a bad idea but Gladio can’t help but wonder if it would help to hold his hand. Would it help, maybe, to remind Noct that he will never leave him? Would that be something he wanted to hear?

It’s something Gladio wants to say.

When they get inside, Noct walks straight to the bedroom and without turning the lights on, climbs onto his bed. He sits cross legged on top of the covers.

Gladio begins to pace a circle around the apartment, checking every room like he always does when he leaves His Highness somewhere. He moves slower than usual, for some reason anticipating something, his ears perked in the direction of Noct’s room. Noct says nothing by the time Gladio finishes the perimeter check so he returns to his bedroom to say goodbye.

He peers in from the hallway, and Noct hasn’t moved, hasn’t even taken off his sneakers, his face buried in his hands. The sight is alarming and Gladio takes a hesitant step into his bedroom. As soon as he can hear him crying, Gladio rushes to the side of the bed in concern, but stops short beside the mattress, unsure what to do.

“Noct…” he says, standing awkwardly in front of him while he sobs into his hands. “What’s happened?”

He doesn’t answer for a long time, just cries and shakes the mattress with the heaving of his small body. Gladio is frozen in place. He’s seen Noct cry before, but it’s always been spurred by fight-related frustration and the fact that he tends to be a sore loser. This is a different kind of crying, not one he can tease or tickle away. There had been a selfish comfort in being the only reason Noct may have to cry, in knowing exactly how to fix it. Standing beside the bed, uncertain and uncomfortable, the only things he can think to do would cross a line Gladio long ago drew between them.

Finally, Noct looks up at him, lowering his hands from his face just enough to peer up at Gladio through the dimly lit room. Despite the low lighting, his wet eyes are bright and direct. Gladio so didn’t expect eye contact from Noctis at a time like this that it takes his breath away to look back at him. There is a long moment where the men seem to be saying something to each other without words, before Noctis speaks aloud.

“I’m engaged.”

Even though Gladio hears him clearly, he needs to hear him say it again.

“What?”

“I’m _engaged_ ,” he says in irritation, his voice breaking on another sob. “Fucking engaged.”

As royal children, as products of arranged marriages themselves, they both have known this day was coming, and yet, neither of them could have anticipated how terrible it would feel. Gladio can’t tell what is more upsetting to him, the news that Noctis will be bound to someone else or the way his Prince is reacting. The floor pitches beneath him and Noctis dissolves into another fit of crying. Gladio wonders if he’s going to fall down. He should sit, but his feet will not move, will not take him closer to Noct, the six inches between his shins and the edge of his bed feeling like a great cavern his wings refuse to fly across.

“Who?” Gladio manages to ask.

“Lady Lunafreya,” Noctis says, the name long and clumsy on his tongue.

“The Oracle?”

“Yeah. Dad says it’s a part of a peace treaty with Niflheim.”

“Ah,” Gladio says. “That’s... good, I guess.”

Noctis responds by groaning into his hands.

“Didn’t you spend time with her as a kid? Aren’t you guys friends?”

“I was eight!” Noct says in dismay. “We’re pen-pals at best. I don’t even _know her_ , Gladio, and I have to _marry her._ ”

“You’ll get to know her,” Gladio says, trying to offer perspective, though he finds the words hard to say.

“I don’t even li--” Noctis cuts himself off, biting his lower lip. His eyes caress the floor. “I was hoping I’d die before this happened.”

“Noct,” Gladio grunts in disappointment.

He buries his face in his elbow and cries, his words wet and muffled when he tells Gladio, “this isn’t what I wanted.”

Gladio feels like his heart is made of glass and Noct is tap tap tapping at it with a hammer. Any moment now, Gladio is going to break.

“We rarely get what we want,” he says solemnly.

Noctis peers up at him once more, ruby-rimmed eyes searching his face. Gladio offers him a bittersweet smile, but only succeeds in making him sob. He is supposed to help him, nurture him, protect him, but Gladio stands still beside the bed, useless and dumb. He can feel his heart pounding with hatred for their station, he can feel his head spinning with fantasies of different lives, he can feel his skin burning with the shame of his thoughts.

Gladio could blame it on a couple things: the way Noctis looks, shockingly beautiful with his red cheeks and blue eyes burning through wet eyelashes… he could or blame it on the outpouring of vulnerability and insight from his typically impassive companion… he could blame it on simply being alone with him in his bedroom... he could blame it on the way Noctis whimpers and hiccups Gladio’s name into his wet palms.

Whatever it is, this is the worst possible moment for an inappropriate erection, but here the Shield stands, as still as a statue, and as hard as one too-- caught between impulse and intuition, desire and duty.

He needs to sit, at least to _move_ , but he does not, can not and then it is too late: Noct looks up at him, studies the look of horror on his face, and then lets his eyes trail downwards, until they land on the unmistakable shape of his traitorous cock through his sweatpants.

Noct stares at it, his mouth slowly parting in disbelief. Gladio feels his face melting, his muscles tight with panic, but still he does not move. After a long moment, Noct climbs to his knees and in one motion, wraps his arms around Gladio’s shoulders and pulls him into a kiss.

Gladio gasps in surprise against his mouth. He hardly realized how close they had actually been until Noct had closed the small distance between them. Gladio has imagined this moment a hundred times, but in all his fantasies it’s never included the taste of tears. Noct continues to kiss him, despite Gladio’s slack response, despite the fact he still occasionally sobs, and the Shield isn’t broken from his shock until the Prince presses his hips forwards, finds his shameful erection with his own quickening flesh.

“Noct!” Gladio says, trying to will himself to back away, out of Noct’s grip, but only leaning closer instead.

“ _Kiss me_ ,” Noctis says, his wet lips moving against Gladio’s, his words choked but emphatic. His fingers dig into Gladio’s shoulders, pulling him impossibly closer and this time, Gladio kisses back. He opens his mouth against Noct’s and Noct presses inside of him, all eager tongue and clacking teeth. He immediately regrets doing as Noct said, knowing he will never be the same after feeling him sigh in gratitude, melt in relief in his arms.

Gladio wraps his hands around Noct’s waist, holds onto his small body with the tender touch of a lover instead of the calculated grip of a coach for the first time, and Gladio is glad Noctis has stopped crying, because he feels just about to start.

They kiss for quite some time, their bodies aligned where Noct kneels on the bed and Gladio stands on the floor. They are both hard beneath their fighting clothes, and neither of them can keep their hands still as they blindly map out each other’s bodies under this new context for the first time, but feeling Noct’s ribcage, his hips, his lower back beneath his palms triggers alarms in his mind, ringing _don’t touch him, your duty is to Shield him, not to love him._

Panic wells up inside of Gladio and more than once, but each time it is quashed by the firm grip of Noct’s hands, the way he trembles with the effort of holding Gladio against him, just like he does on the mat when he’s struggling to push Gladio away. There is a weak acceptance that there’s no way he can stop kissing him now, now that they’ve begun. When they finally do break for air, the two men do not disentangle their arms. Gladio stares at him, breathing heavily into the few inches that separates their faces while Noct whispers four words Gladio will never forget.

“Stay with me tonight.”

Gladio hesitates with a response, but when Noct tugs on him, fingers cinched in the material of his sweatshirt, Gladio follows him onto the bed. They both kick out of their shoes, which is in its own way, the commitment Gladio is afraid to speak aloud.

Noct lays back in his bed, pulling Gladio over him, bringing their mouths back together as soon as they’re close enough. One of his busy hands knocks Gladio’s ballcap aside, the other sliding up beneath his sweatshirt to lay on his bare stomach and Gladio gasps, he is struck with the distinct feeling of being a passenger in a car that is flying a hundred miles per hour down the highway, away from the Crown City and towards the wilderness. This time, when panic grips him Gladio is able to pull away, the bitter flavor of regret mixing with the remnants of Noct’s tears on his lips all the while mourning the loss of his hands beneath his clothes.

He cannot let years of unrequited love cause him to abandon his duty. Noctis is hurting today, and taking advantage of him is the least Shiedly thing he can do. Noct stares up at him from the bedspread and Gladio kneels a few inches away from him, looking for the words to explain.

“I shouldn’t—“

“No,” he cuts him off. “I want it.”

“Noct, we--”

“Please,” he interrupts again. “Let me have this.”

There are a hundred reasons to stop, a hundred reasons to put on his shoes and bolt out the door, and only one reason to stay. Gladio stares back at that reason, at his sad blue eyes, at his kiss-swollen lips, at his small hands reaching into the space between their bodies. Noct grabs him by the sweatshirt once more, but instead of pulling Gladio on top of him, he pushes him back onto the bed, climbing over him as he does. Noctis straddles Gladio, sitting on his stomach, and pins his arms above his head. Gladio has to close his eyes, tries to tell himself this is all just another shameful dream.

“You want this,” Noctis whispers from above him. “You’ve _wanted_ this.”

“Yes,” Gladio admits, his voice thin with the revelation of his darkest secret.

“Me too,” Noct says succinctly.

Gladio whines beneath him, but does not open his eyes. Distantly, he wonders if he’s died, if this isn’t Noctis but some sort of demon sitting atop him and this is a final test to see if he can resist temptation, prove worthy to be his Shield. He fears that if he fails to refuse Noctis now, he will be taken from him forever and Gladio knows surely that a lifetime of pining is preferable to one evening of delusion.

“My _duty_ \--” Gladio begins, but Noctis interrupts him with a kiss.

For a few minutes, the panic recedes, numbed by the joyous sensation of kissing him again. If this is some demented Crystal-driven hallucination, it sure as hell _feels real_. He smells just like Noct and when Gladio cracks his eyes to peer at him, he looks like him too and _astrals_ , now Gladio even knows what he tastes like. Shaking, Gladio’s hands find his thighs and lay there lightly. Noctis grunts in appreciation at the contact. Noct is hunched over him while they kiss, both hands on the side of Gladio’s face, keeping him from pulling away, his fingers tracing the scar that has long healed.

_My duty._

The kiss he leads Gladio through is tender and unexpecting but Noct’s hands begin to wander away from his face, finding openings in his clothing at his neck and wrists and waist that he can slide his fingers beneath, find bare skin to brush lightly or suddenly scratch in ways that makes Gladio gasp and tense up beneath him. He starts to boil beneath his clothes, and he sighs in relief when Noct lifts his hips to shove Gladio’s hoodie up to his chest, letting the cool air hit his sweat-damp skin before he sits back down.

What had been an unfortunate erection has now grown to painful arousal. His cock throbs, huge and hard beneath his sweatpants and it feels just like it always does when he thinks about Noctis, sinful and wrong but aching and impossible to ignore. This time, however, it is not his own hand that begins to palm himself through his clothes, but _Noct’s_ , the _Prince’s_ , the one person he’s always wanted and swore never to touch. The frightening pleasure of Noct’s fingers curling around him feels like failure and Gladio starts in the bed. He sits up and tries to dislodge him, but Noctis manages to stay put, one hand fisted into his sweatshirt, the other firm where he grips his cock through his pants.

“Noct, I’m your _Shield--_ ” Gladio gasps in protest.

Noctis looks down at him, his eyes narrow, though he seems to be giving Gladio a chance to reason with him. Gladio searches desperately for the words, any words, to explain his fears. What can he say to encapsulate the hours of meditation he’s done on his duty as a Shield, the significance of aristocracy, the expectations of their fathers? How can he explain the years of self-inflicted punishment for too many daydreams? How can he make Noct see that they are trapped like this, that their positions within their lines has both bound them together and forced them apart?

“This is a bad idea,” he says. “You’ll still be engaged, Noct. This won’t change anything.”

“I know it won’t,” Noct responds, deflating a little at the reminder. His hands fall away from him and Gladio groans at the loss. He watches Noct chew on his lip, and though it’s opposite of the protest Gladio has been putting up, he finds himself rubbing his hands up and down Noct’s thighs, encouraging him to speak.

“That’s not… that’s not why I’m doing this,” he says.

His words make Gladio’s breath stop. He stares up at Noctis, flushed and a little sweaty, the shape of his erection easily visible where where he straddles Gladio, looking every inch like he imagined he would, only it’s better, so much better, now that it’s real. His face is open, and honest and Gladio is so in love him for several moments he can’t remember why he is fighting him, because he will never be able to say no to him, never be able to walk away from this now that he knows Noctis wants it too.

“I feel like I’m running out of time, Gladio,” he murmurs, and though he says his name, Noct speaks to the wall.

The ominous words and their vacant delivery spark a protective panic in Gladio, and his hands tighten on Noct’s thighs.

_My duty is to shield him._

“Running out of time for what?” he demands.

Noct looks back at him and the flow of his tears has restarted once more, rolling over his cheeks and splashing onto the bare skin of Gladio’s stomach beneath him.

“To make my life my own,” he says. “To have some part of it that belongs to me.”

His heart aches at Noct’s words, for Gladio knows that feeling so well, the cruel fate of the Heir Apparent, of having a heart to dream and desire but having no free-will to follow it. And yet, the familiar pain is remarkably less, dulled by the secrets that have been revealed this evening-- secrets that seem to fit like puzzle pieces-- and the implication that maybe they don’t have to hurt anymore.

“Noct…” Gladio breathes. “I’ve always belonged to you.”

They stare at each other for a few moments, Noctis still crying silently and not bothering to wipe his tears. Both of his hands lay on top of Gladio’s where they still grip his thighs. Saying it aloud solidifies the sentiment for Gladio. It is his birthright to never leave his side, and he will eagerly sign himself up to be whatever Noctis needs.

“Nobody needs to know,” Noct says softly. “This can be something just for us.”

It’s the word _us_ that causes a bloom of promise inside of him, like a warm sun easily melting away the icy edges of his fear.

_Just us. A Prince and his Shield. Nobody needs to know._

Gladio sits up in the bed and kisses him.

His lips taste like salt and his arms circle Gladio’s neck. He holds Noct’s waist and rolls him over the bed, lets their thighs slot together and their hips align. Noct sighs deeply into his mouth, presses his hips up into Gladio’s and the sigh transforms into a moan.

It feels so good to have Noctis’ body beneath him, to feel their mutual arousals pressed together between them, the proof that Noct wants this too. They grind against each other, kissing until they can no longer, and then just burying their faces into each other’s shoulders and necks while they pant and groan. In this moment, Gladio is certain he’s never been harder or happier, and then Noct suddenly speaks.

“Pretty fucked up you got hard from watching me cry,” he says.

Gladio chokes on his own spit and he presses his face against the mattress beside Noct’s shoulder to cough.

“That’s-- not--” he tries, sputtering to hard to finish a sentence. “I’m n-not--”

“Not what? Not a freak?” Noct asks, stroking the Gladio’s back while he continues to cough. “Was kinda hoping you were.”

Gladio lifts his head when he catches his breath, eyes watering as he looks down at Noct on the bed. Hearing Noct speak like this is disorienting and unfamiliar, but the Prince stares up at him with a challenging look Gladio knows all too well from a lifetime on the spar mat with him.

“I guess we’ll find out what you’re good for,” Noct smirks.

Gladio shakes his head in disbelief, but he accepts the challenge anyway. He lowers his mouth to his neck and Noct opens up for him, breathing deeply and arching his chest up into Gladio’s in response. Even his neck is wet and salty with tears but Noctis isn’t crying now, so Gladio licks them away methodically, infatuated with the way he writhes beneath him, groaning against his skin every time Noct bumps his cock up against Gladio’s longing flesh.

“Maybe you just get hard easily,” Noct muses, his voice strained.

“For you,” Gladio says, lowering his mouth to work over Noct’s collarbone before pushing his t-shirt up to kiss his stomach. Noctis gasps. Gladio speaks into the fine dark hair that trails temptingly beneath his waistband.

“Happens all the time.”

“I’m surprised I haven’t noticed,” Noct whispers to him. “I have been trying for it.”

This causes Gladio to fall still, frozen thinking about all the times Noct has licked his fingers when they’d go out for ice cream and how often he leaves the bathroom door open while he showers, walks back to his bedroom with a half clutched towel around his waist. All this time, Gladio had been obsessed with hiding his attraction, unawares that Noct had been intentionally drawing it out of him, making him suffer, playing a game. He recoils from the realization that he endured years of self-discipline just to fail in the end. Gladio suddenly feels like _he’s_ running out of time, or at least, he’s pained by the time he’s wasted with Noct already. On an impulse, driven by frustration, he yanks Noct’s sweatpants over his hips and finds he isn’t wearing any underwear. His dick springs to attention and Noct dissolves into weak laughter at the surprise.

“Such a brat,” Gladio sighs.

“It finally worked,” Noct shrugs.

“Been workin’,” Gladio responds, his voice thin with distraction as he gazes down at Noctis’ cock, studies the flesh he’s tried to picture in his mind. Noct is thick and hard and his cock is red against his pale stomach and dark hair.

“Yeah, while I was _crying_ ,” Noct starts again.

“How do I shut you up?” Gladio asks, looking up at Noct’s wicked expression, and he can feel his cheeks burning with embarrassment.

“Suck it,” Noct answers, lifting his hips, pointing the head of his cock at Gladio’s lips.

Gladio scoffs, but it had been the plan anyway, so he does as he’s told. He has imagined getting on his knees and serving Noctis like this so many times that it is surreal and almost frightening to take him into his mouth, but the ragged moan of satisfaction that comes from his Prince when he does washes away the fear, leaves only the dizzying disorientation of his dreams becoming a reality. He crouches over Noctis’ thighs in the bed, squeezes his hips in his hands, kisses every inch of his cock.

He can fit most of Noctis in his mouth, and so he cups his palm lightly around his sac, cradling him at the base. Noct groans and ruts his cock over his tongue and Gladio lets him for a few strokes before he pulls back to lick and suck at the tip. Noct is easy, just like Gladio thought he would be. His muscles tense and twitch and he pants loudly while Gladio worships him. He blows him with his eyes wide open, locked on the expression of pleasure of Noct’s face, mouth open and head thrown back. When he finally does look back down at him, Gladio wraps his tongue under his round cockhead and with their eyes still connected, Noct moans. He is rewarded with a salty burst on his tongue that makes Gladio’s cock throb with neglect.

Suddenly overheating, Gladio pulls off of him, tugs his hoodie and tank top over his head in one motion and tosses it to the floor.

“Mm, yeah,” Noct says with satisfaction, his eyes raking over his chest and abdomen. He can feel Noct’s cock twitch in his hand. Gladio’s cheeks redden. It’s not as if he’s ever been bashful about his body before, but something about the way Noct is looking at him now, and the knowledge that Noct _has been_ looking at him this way for a while, makes him burn.

They continue to watch each other while Gladio begins work once more. Noctis moans, his hips jerking up into Gladio’s mouth where he kisses the head of his cock with wet, open lips and strokes him base to tip. It feels like electricity is flowing between their eyes as they witness each other as new men in this uncharted territory.

“You’re so fucking hot, Gladio.”

Gladio chuckles to himself, pressing the sound against Noct’s stiff shaft.

“I’m… sure you know,” he says. “But thought you might… wanna hear it from me.”

He sounds like he’s getting close, his words interrupted by his heavy breathing, so Gladio doesn’t stop to respond, despite his smug attitude and the smirk plastered on his face. He wouldn’t have expected Noctis to be anything less than an arrogant little shit in bed, but Gladio still finds the confirmation thrilling. He finally tears his eyes away so he may focus on the task at hand, bobbing with intention. Noctis moans loudly, his hands flying to Gladio’s head, skates over his shorn temples before tangling in his overgrown hair.

“Good… Gladio…” he groans, guttural and from deep within. “That’s… so good.”

Gladio’s eyes fall shut, leans into the pain of Noctis pulling on his hair, let’s his words of praise wash over him, basking in the reward of his full and utter attention while he finally gives Noct the pleasure he always selfishly wanted to give.

“Wanna swallow?” Noctis asks, urgently, the words clipped and his thighs quaking.

Gladio nods around his cock, opening his eyes just in time watch Noctis curl around him, his body tense and shaking, hands rough and needy where they hold Gladio to his lap. He doesn’t even _have_ to swallow, Noctis has shoved his cock so deep in Gladio’s mouth that his climax spills right down his throat.

As soon as he’s finished, Noctis drags Gladio up to his level by his hair and his grunt of a protest is lost when Noct shoves his tongue into Gladio’s mouth, kissing him deeply and seeking the taste of his own pleasure.

When they pull apart to look at each other, both men breathe out the word, “fuck…” at the same time.

“My turn,” Noct says, his eyes flashing, and Gladio can still barely keep up with everything that’s happened this evening, so he lets Noct push him back on the bed. His eyes fall shut and he groans in relief when he begins to grope him through his pants.

“Noct,” he says, softly, because he wants to, because he _can._

“What?” he responds, even though he knows Gladio wasn’t looking for an answer.

Noct pulls Gladio from his pants, his hand small and cold where it wraps around his aching flesh. He pumps him a few times with one hand, and then switches, and then strokes him with both at the same time. Gladio watches as Noct studies him, his eyebrows lifted in surprise.

“Jeez, Gladio,” he laughs. “I mean, _seriously._ ”

“Think you can handle it?” Gladio asks,

“Aw, come on,” Noct whines. “You’ve seen me handle much larger weapons.”

“Guess that’s true,” he chuckles.

“Have a little faith,” Noct murmurs, lowering his head so the breath behind his words falls over his cock. “You’re the one who taught me how to swing a sword, afterall. You should know I’ve got skills.”

“At sucking cock?” Gladio asks, giving Noct a curious look.

“Watch and learn as the student becomes the teacher,” Noct answers, grinning cheekily down at his dick.

He has some more questions, but he’ll have to save them for later, Noct has taken his cockhead into his wet heat and the sensation shoots through him, lethal and delicious. Gladio can’t do anything but groan loudly, watch Noct’s pretty mouth wrap around his girth.

Noct works his cock, sucking sloppily at the tip and pumping his long shaft with heavy, deliberate strokes. He’s making Gladio moan right off the bat and _okay, he’s definitely done this before_ , but if Gladio has anything to say on the matter, he’ll never do it with anyone else again.

As if Noct can hear his thoughts, he pops off of his cock and speaks, his wet lips still resting against the tip.

“Don’t worry,” he says. “It was all practice for you.”

Gladio throws his head back on the pillow and lets out a dry, exasperated sob.

“Take these off,” Noct says, tugging at the elastic waistband of his joggers.

Noctis moves off of him and Gladio does as he’s told before reclining nude in Noct’s bed, staring back at the Prince who is both fully clothed and wearing a hungry expression. Gladio wears nothing but his birthday suit and his blatant awe, face slack and cock hard as Noct gets comfortable on his stomach between his thighs, ankles crossed where they float behind him.

Gladio folds an arm behind his head so he can watch Noct while he strokes him into his mouth. When he lowers a hand to rest affectionately on the back of his head, Noct surprises him by opening his mouth wider and sliding down around Gladio’s cock, taking him well into his throat and making Gladio gasp, his body immediately tensing up against the urge to knock up inside of him.

“S-six,” he sputters out. The vibration of Noct’s laughter hits his cock and Gladio moans.

Noct works him deeply for a few minutes, and Gladio feels like he is dissolving into the bedspread. He shuts his eyes, breathing deeply and focusing on the way his head feels bobbing under his palm, the way Noct’s hand slides wetly as he pumps his own drool over Gladio’s cock. It trickles down his sac, in between his legs. Noctis’ free hand explores the hair at the base of his shaft, down to his inner thighs, his fingers dancing over his skin and prodded into muscle that trembles eagerly in response. He can feel the coil in his abdomen tightening and he can still hardly believe this is _Noct_ bringing him to his edge.

Suddenly, Noct pulls himself off of Gladio and their eyes meet as he slides a single finger deeply in his mouth. Gladio is panting, pained by the sudden loss of sensation when Noct returns to him, sliding his mouth over his cock and his hand between his legs. Gladio is too shocked to speak when Noct’s fingers crawl between his ass and locate his entrance. Pinned down by his open throat, Gladio cannot move away as Noct presses a finger inside of him.

Not that he wants to.

Gladio groans raggedly, chills shooting through his body through Noct can’t be more than an inch inside of him. He forces himself onto his elbows, desperate to watch and he is struck once more with the dizzying reality that not only has he ended up nude in the Prince’s bed, but now Noct is deepthroating him and fingering him at the same time. Suddenly, Noct pulls off of him, smiling up at Gladio with a flash of white teeth.

Noct watches his face intently for reaction while he moves his finger inside of him. Gladio gives him a soft broken moan and based on Noct’s expression, it’s exactly what he wanted to hear.

“Good,” he coos.

Noct leans over him, holding his eye contact while he spits a long line of drool between Gladio’s legs, letting it land on his finger before pushing it all the way inside. Gladio groans loudly, his lonely cock jumping for attention and Noct sees it so he tightens his hand on him and begins to pump him fast and firm, his palm hot and wet on his shaft.

“I’ve got you,” Noct mumbles, his mouth falling to Gladio’s thigh.

Gladio has to collapse back in the bed once more, unable to hold himself up. The pleasure of Noct’s slick hand fucking over his cock is amplified tenfold by the experience of being filled by him and the hungry way Noct sucks at his inner thighs. When he sinks his teeth into the tender flesh there, Gladio gasps. Noct follows up by punching his finger into him, causing his shock to dissolve into a moan so loud that Gladio is consciously grateful Noct doesn’t share walls with his neighbors. Gladio’s entire body begins to tremble and the heat in his loins begins to consume him.

“Cum when you wanna,” Noct murmurs into his skin, and Gladio wants to laugh but for some reason being given permission brings him there, and without warning Gladio falls over his edge.

He explodes with a sob, his cock shooting generously onto his chest and stomach. Noct doesn’t stop pumping him until he’s empty, and then he lays his head on Gladio’s bruised thigh and waits, his finger still buried inside of him.

After what feels like a very long time, Gladio regains his senses and manages to sit up in the bed. He looks down at Noct. He isn’t smiling, but his red lips are soft and slack while he waits for Gladio to speak. Gladio looks at him, at his own softening cock, at the place where Noct’s hand disappears beneath him, at the landscape of bruises and bite marks that decorate both of his thighs.

“Definitely left your mark…” Gladio says.

“That was the intention,” Noct answers, finally withdrawing his finger and earning another audible shudder from his Shield.

Slowly, Noct crawls up the length of Gladio’s body. He moves so slowly that by the time he reaches his face, Gladio’s had enough of waiting, and he rolls Noct over and pins him to the bed before he can manage to bring their mouths together. He doesn't get a chance to protest, because Gladio kisses him there, hovering over his small body. Noct holds onto him, fingernails digging into inked skin.

After a few moments, Gladio pulls back and simply gazes down at him. Noct tolerates it for no more than five seconds, and then he begins to squirm beneath him. He turns his head to the side and stares at Gladio’s hand on the mattress.

“What are you looking at?” Noct asks.

“My whole world,” Gladio answers.

Noct scoffs, but cuts his blue eyes back up to meet his.

“I love you,” Gladio says.

Noctis gasps, and looks away again, his eyes tracing the feathers on Gladio’s arm.

“Isn’t a little early to say that?” Noct asks.

“Don’t think so,” Gladio says. “You know I’m not going anywhere.”

Noct smiles to himself, pressing his face into the place where Gladio’s forearm meets the bedspread. Gladio is utterly charmed by Noct’s bashfulness after everything they’d just done. From his hiding place, he murmurs to Gladio,

“Love you too.”

Gladio kisses his cheek, and then his temple, his hair, his ear, his neck and his collarbone until Noct is shoving him away and Gladio is forced to settle into the bed beside him. From there he continues to gaze at him, and is suddenly struck by the intense need to pinch himself, so he does.

It hurts.

Noct looks peaceful where he lays, satisfied, and a little proud of himself too. _He should be proud,_ Gladio thinks. He has to acknowledge that he put up a pretty good fight, but he’s been teaching Noct how to beat him since day one, and in the end, he never really stood a chance. In a way, he supposed he did what a Shield was _supposed_ to do, obey his Prince, protect him from pain, so he’s a little proud of himself too. They will have a complications to navigate later. To borrow Noct’s words, the royal circlejerk awaits, but for once, Gladio feels an absence of fear. No one can stop them from loving each other, and nobody needs to know.

“I’m sorry,” Gladio tells him.

Noct shrugs.

“It is what it is,” he says. “At least I have you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! 
> 
> I'm dedicating this fic to you because you are a cherished member of the "Gladio and Noctis are deeply in love" echo chamber and you help reinforce and inspire my favorite HCs for these boys. Happy belated birthday, Whip!!!
> 
> If you love gladnoct please come talk to me on Twitter @taketheblanket


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